de Grisogono

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The di Grisogono Meccanico, £220,000, uses a patented double time display;
both analogue and digital operate on the same mechanical movement.
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Firing On
All Cylinders
2
The latest in an ongoing wave of conceptual horolo-gadgetry is from de
Grisogono – a brand seldom noted for its timidity. The ‘Meccanico’ features
what René Droux calls the ‘missing link’ in watchmaking – a mechanical digital
display, which as QP discovers, represents more than just another Fawaz
Gruosi vanity project. Like the Occhio minute repeater before it, the sheer
imagination on display outweighs anything as mundane as use or practicality;
the perfect complication, one could say.
Alex Doak
The Editor’s letter in Issue 29 highlighted the divide
growing
between
tradition
and
modernity
in
watchmaking. It’s a welcome distinction that
reinforces our understanding of Patek and
Vacheron et al. in contrast to ‘me-too’ exponents
of the craft, who have since blossomed to
occupy their own niche. But while there is no
denying the newness being expounded by
de Grisogono with ‘Meccanico dG’, the difference
here is that de Grisogono has never been anything
other than completely unique.
Just one look at the Meccanico is to beggar belief. Prior
to Baselworld, I honestly thought the CAD drawings
released under embargo were as far as de Grisogono
would get – top marks for imagination, now get back to the day
job. Little was I expecting prototypes as tangible as those on
display at the company’s gleaming new stand, as soon as April.
Centre stage
Like so many ‘stands’ at Baselworld, it was a palace; an inhabitable
incarnation of the brand’s values – in this case a vampishly kitsch
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If it weren’t for marques such as
de Grisogono the watch world
would be a greyer place
opulence – that properly affirms its
coherent. Unlike many complications,
status as jeweller-cum-watchmaker
which by their very nature are club
extraordinaire. It just wouldn’t be
sandwiches of separate mechanisms
right if Meccanico dG had been tucked
and modules, this entirely integrated
away behind half-sibling Chopard, to
calibre has been designed afresh,
slip
top to bottom – it’s so novel, it simply
past
unnoticed,
amid
the
bottleneck of journalists and tourists.
had to be.
But for once, photos of a hangdog
Linking chains
Gruosi, complete with beaming arm
“We call it the ‘missing link’ in
candy are absent from this chapter in
horology, bridging the gap to quartz
the de Grisogono story. Indeed, the
digital,” explains Droux. “Unlike
ambassador on hand to present the
normal mechanical digital displays,
Mecchanico was not FG himself, but
which simply show the numerals
his quietly spoken horological stage
through a window, our ‘real digital’
manager, René Droux.
system actually ‘writes’ the numbers.
This has never been done before.”
Rabbit in the hat
This is not to say Droux was without
The inspiration was, in fact, the
a sense of theatre. During snatched
massive clock hurrying millions of
opportunities to compare notes, the
New Yorkers on their way every day:
talk of the Baselworld Media Centre
“Mr Gruosi used to see the digital
was, apart from perhaps Daniel
clock above Time Square, and told
Roth’s automaton and Villemont’s
me it was a shame there was no
worldtimer,
wristwatch version of that display.
Droux’s
oversize
working model of Mecchanico’s key
Meccanico’s hand wound movement comprises of
651 components. The digital display offers a second
time zone and uses mobile microsegments driven by
an assemblage of 23 cams, connected to a set of
gears and a triggering and synchronizing.
mechanism – the ‘real digital display’.
As watchmakers we naturally said no
His rehearsed routine and patter
it isn’t possible, but he said ‘I cannot
soon reminded me of a magic show,
accept no as an answer! Think!’ So we
turning handles and opening little
did, in a very different way to usual.
doors to blacked-out chambers. When
In developing the movement, we
the secret behind his mysterious
actually had to think ‘computer’. The
cylinders were revealed, it was as if a
system needed to work like a
member of the Magic Circle had
mechanical microprocessor.”
broken the cardinal rule.
Before your very eyes
The secret in question is a delight –
The Meccanico’s second time-zone
something that Heath Robinson
is displayed by an array of 23
might
a
horizontally and vertically positioned
day.
tubular segments: the vertical tubes
Despite involving no less than 651
are 9 mm high and weigh at most
components, making this the most
25 mg, while the horizontal tubes
parts-hungry single complication in
measure 2.9 mm in length and weigh
existence, the core principles behind
only 10 mg. Two vertical tubes form
Meccanico
the ‘1’ on the furthest left and seven
have
particularly
conceived
clear-headed
is
economical
on
and
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Evolution | 45
tubes form each of the remaining
that. It was a linear impulse with a
‘8’ arrays – single hours, tens of
significant level of torque – enough
minutes and single minutes. It’s a
to turn as many as 12 tubes at once.”
shame de Grisogono didn’t make it
24-hour by having four ‘8’ arrays, but
At this point, the second of Droux’
I suspect space soon became an issue
props came out – a Perspex Meccano
in what’s already a chunky watch.
model of the impulse capacitor. A
triangular cam rotating once every
To form the numbers, each of the 23
three minutes collects the power
tubes has four faces: two opposing
from the going train (itself based on
faces fitted with coloured strips
the geometry of the Valjoux 7750)
and two opposing unmarked faces.
by forcing against a sprung lever.
Time changes are effected by 90°
Every minute, with every apex of the
rotations of the required tubes, while
cam, the lever flicks back instantly.
driving this is an assemblage of 23
Like the cam assemblies, it’s an
cams – one per tube – connected to a
immensely satisfying contraption to
set of gears with a triggering and
observe – the sort that makes you
synchronisation system.
feel clever just to understand it.
Setting you to wonder, who was
As Droux notes, “All these components
actually clever enough to dream this
must talk together, so we had to
all up in the first please?
choose a language. We eventually
decided on binary.”
Whodunit?
Prior to the write-up, I’d spent many
For each tubular array, the two or
hours and many emails researching
seven cams are mounted on a shared
(OK, make that gossiping) the origins
axis, their teeth in relative positions
of de Grisogono’s unprecedented
that create the ‘memory’ for that
innovation. Surely, this glamour puss
array – rather like the drum in a music
jeweller with a penchant for black
box, whose pins pluck tynes as they
diamonds could not – should not? – be
rotate. For example, when the
turning out pantomime complications
single-minutes array on the far right
of this calibre. Like the Occhio Minuti
switches from ‘0’ to ‘1’ every 10
Ripetizione before it (its iris-dial
minutes, the four cams responsible
mechanism had ‘Christophe Claret’
for the four tubes on the top, top
stamped all over), the realisation of
left, bottom left and bottom initiate a
the Meccanico must have demanded
90° turn, hiding the coloured strips.
outside help from, say, BNB Concept,
The cams for the top right and
Renaud & Papi, Claret again, or any
bottom-right tubes turn with the
other mercenary movement tailor yet
others, but are smooth during that
to break the surface of anonymity. But
minute, meaning the coloured strips
no, as loathe as I am to admit, it seems
on those tubes remain exposed,
my fruitless snooping was a waste of
forming ‘1’. Similarly, the middle tube
time. De Grisogono’s Swiss-French
remains uncoloured. Combined, one
supermarket-attic atelier has done it
could write this switch in binary code
alone, enlisting only the help of a non-
as ‘1111000’.
horological engineering company for
some of the trickier components.
The conjurer’s tricks
The lightning-fast switch between
Indeed, production of the Meccanico
numbers is an innovation in itself:
dG will soon be relocated to a brand-
“We thought about the digital
new dedicated workshop, being
display, how it switches every 60
topped out as I type. Limited runs of
seconds and what we needed for
177 in titanium and 177 in white
The case is available in titanium, red gold,
titanium and red gold, titanium and platinum
and also titanium and rubber. Production is
limited to 177 pieces each.
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dG Mecannico launch party
included a performance by
the Béjart Ballet
gold are slated, as 1 plus 7 plus 7 equals 15 – the
The distinction here though – unlike J-LC’s Xtreme
anniversary that de Grisogono celebrates this year.
Lab for example, whose progressive material
I suspect however, by the time pieces no. 177 and
science has already cropped up in the Amvox 3 and
no. 177 are despatched to their owners, a good
the new Gyrotourbillon Reverso – is that it is
many more years will have passed – beyond which,
inconceivable this bizarre technology will filter
the mind boggles at what will exit the cutting-
through to series production. In years to come,
edge atelier next.
neither spares nor inheritable expertise will exist
to perpetuate the lifespan of the few hundred
In the light of day
Meccanicos slated for production. Nor, then, will
Like many models rushed out for Basel, the two
their owners’ whopping £220,000 investment be
Meccanicos available for manhandling – in pink gold
in any way guaranteed. Normally a bugbear for
and titanium – were far from functional (so thank
purists and watchmakers alike, I say who cares? If
goodness for Droux’ conjuring act!). But whether
it weren’t for marques such as de Grisogono
the movements simply don’t work, or whether they
pushing the boundaries of sensible horological
were blocked to protect against the uncouth
practice, the watch world would be a greyer place.
handling of journalists, this shouldn’t put you off –
Just this April, for every act of disappointing brand
after all, it’s rare when anything other than concept
consolidation on display, we’ve seen Zenith’s
cars garner headlines at motor shows. But the
gyroscopic Zero G tourbillon, another outrageous
burning question isn’t ‘when will it be ready?’ but
Opus (shame about the design), Romain Jerome’s
rather ‘will it ever be ready?’ Amazingly, all
timeless Day&Night, and ‘Travelling Wilburys’ of
indications are that the Meccanico is far from
watchmaking Maitres du Temps, exhibiting next
haute couture – this is a very real project, with
door to the equally astonishing Jean Dunand. Even
delivery as sure as Bugatti’s Veyron, the Mémoire 1
if we still wear our same old Subs, Seamasters or
or even HWRT’s Opus 3 (still on Vianney Halter’s
Tanks, we must constantly look to these upstarts
for reassurance. 8
prototype bench five years on).
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Hands Free
Contrary to the Meccanico’s press release,
date; a numbered disc rotating beneath a
could say the Meccanico’s true antecedent
the digital display is not a ‘child of the
window. With the advent of quartz, came
was Omega’s 1976 Chrono-Quartz – the first
quartz era’. In fact, the ‘sans aiguilles’
digital as we commonly know it. The first
‘hybrid’ watch with both analogue display
timepiece is probably attributable to the
digital watch, a Pulsar prototype in 1970, was
for the time and LCD for the chronograph,
impatience of 19th-century Saxon King
developed jointly by Hamilton Watch
followed by Zenith’s rectangular Time
Friedrich August II. Irritated by the ding-
Company and Electro-Data. John Bergey, the
Command. When an ailing Lip enlisted 7
dings of the repeater pocket watches so
head of Hamilton’s Pulsar division, said that
external designers to breathe life into the
fashionable at the time, he resolved to
he was inspired by the then-futuristic digital
French company in 1976, an illustrator and
placate the auditorium at Dresden’s new
clock that Hamilton themselves made for
package designer by the name of Prince
Semper Opera House by commissioning a
2001: A Space Odyssey (1968). On April 4,
Francois Baschmakoff ended up inventing
mute stage clock – presumably, as with
1972 the Pulsar was finally ready, in 18-carat
the concentric-disc jump-hour and minutes
mobile phones nowadays, instructing the
gold, priced $2,100. It seems fitting that the
display – the sort of thing you see slavishly
audience to ‘switch to silent’ prior to each
first man to wear the new watch was one
mimicked by fashion brands Diesel, Nixon
performance.
of
James Bond in Live and Let Die. Its light-
and Fossil.
constructing such a clock, “which would
emitting diode (LED) display was created by
differ from the usual time display with dial
passing an electric charge through inorganic
and hands,” was given in 1841 to JC
materials, with seven electronic switches
Friedrich Gutkaes, later watchmaker to the
required for each of the numerals on the
Court. He came up with the extraordinary
display – the equivalent of the seven co-axial
idea of building a numerical display – the
cams in Meccanico. Because LEDs used so
hour framed by a left-hand window, the
much power, most watches with LED displays
five-minutes on the right. Assisting him on
required that the user press a button to see
the job was a promising young apprentice
the time for a few seconds – hardly very
by the name of Adolph Lange. When A
useful with a Martini in one hand and a girl in
Lange & Söhne was re-established in 1990,
the other. Takeover by the permanent liquid
the five-minute Semper Opera clock inspired
crystal display (LCD) was inevitable. Created
the grande date, which has since become a
in 1972 after decades of research at Hull
signature feature of the Lange brand.
University, the first watch with an LCD was
The
daunting
task
the 1973 Seiko 06LC.
Since then, mechanical digital displays –
found in the Porsche Indicator Chronograph,
De Bethune’s austere DBS Digital, the
Chronoswiss Digiteur (using new old-stock
FEF ébauches), Breitling for Bentley’s Flying
B jump-hour, and Opus 8, which displays the
time in relief, rather like that executive toy
from the Eighties, which takes an impression
of your face with metal pins. There’s even
been a recent return to Gutkaes’ original
rolling cylinder format, with Parmigiani’s
Bugatti, Vianney Halter’s Cabestan and Jacob
& Co’s Quenttin all displaying time and date
on ‘drums’. Drawing a line from any of these
watches to the outlandish Meccanico still
usually the jump-hour variety – have been
TAG’s 1975 Chronosplit was the first quartz
restricted to the same format as that of the
chrono with a double digital display, but one
DeBethune DBS Digital, 2006.
Nowadays, mechanical digital displays can be
TAG Heuer Microtimer, 2003.
requires an intuitive leap, to say the least…
Omega Chrono Quartz, 1976.
Further information: De Grisogono Boutique, 14A New Bond Street, London W1S 3SZ. Tel: 020 7499 2225, www.degrisogono.com